VIDEO: 'Standing Next to History' on Nov. 22, 1963

Culpeper Media Network's Germanna Today cable show takes a look at "Standing Next to History," a program commemorating today's 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy featuring an eyewitness from Nov. 22, 1963 and GCC history faculty members Dan Carter and Stuart Smith.

He was at Dealey Plaza and Parkland Memorial Hospital on Nov. 22, 1963. This Nov. 5th, he'll be at GCC for 'Standing Next to History' 50th anniversary JFK assassination panel

To observe the 50^th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, Germanna Community College will host "Standing Next to History," a panel discussion featuring an eyewitness who was at Dealey Plaza at the time of the shooting and at Parkland Memorial Hospital moments after the presidential limousine arrived there.   

The event will be held in Sealy Auditorium at Germanna’s Fredericksburg Area Campus in Spotsylvania from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Nov. 5, 2013. Admission is free and it’s open to the public.

When shots rang out at Dealey Plaza on Nov. 22, 1963, Jack McNairy was a Dallas high-school student who watched as President John F. Kennedy’s motorcade sped away.  A Secret Service agent who had been left behind asked the 16-year-old McNairy to give him a ride Parkland Memorial Hospital. Once there, McNairy stared in disbelief into the president’s blood-splattered limo before the Secret Service ordered it cleaned and sent it back to Washington.

 McNairy, who will be part of Germanna's "Standing Next to History" panel discussion, was interviewed for the Discovery Channel’s 2008 “Inside the Target Car,” which, it said in a press release at the time, employed “cutting-edge forensics and Zapruder film archives to definitively prove that the fatal bullet was fired from the Texas School Book Depository.” 

Another member of the panel will be Jim Martin, who was a young newspaperman covering President Kennedy’s assassination from a Washington perspective.

Germanna history instructor Dan Carter will moderate the discussion with McNairy and Martin and GCC Assistant Professor of History Stuart H. Smith III will explain the political climate that led to the president making his fateful trip to Dallas. Audience questions will follow.

McNairy's Discovery Channel interview begins at the 8 minute mark in the video below.